UNCW seniors Ashley Cedzo (left) and Lindsay Staszak are part of a save-the-forest group that opposes UNCW's planned development of the wooded area off Reynolds Drive. Here, they pose for a portrait in that area on Wednesday, November 28, 2007, with a group of students that support their effort. The as-yet unnamed group will be holding an organizational meeting next Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2007, in room 202 of Dobo Hall at UNCW at 7:30 p.m. For more information on the group and its cause, e-mail saveuncwpines@gmail.com.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL HENNINGER/WILMINGTON STAR-NEWS
By Vicky Eckenrode
Staff Writer
vicky.eckenrode@starnewsonline.com
Nearly 50 University of North Carolina Wilmington students sat in a lecture room Tuesday night trading Web sites and organizing an opposition.
They, as well as some upset faculty members, are hoping petitions, letter-writing campaigns and outside community pressure can stop a construction project on campus that would require tearing down 15 acres of woods.
"We're not opposed to the construction and the additions, we're just opposed to the location," said Ashley Cedzo, a senior marine biology major. "This university is one of the few remaining campuses with a lot of green space. That was a big draw for me applying here."
But university officials say they have looked at other sites, and the property at the rear of the campus is the only spot that makes sense to expand on-campus housing.
"The decision has been made," said Ed Shuford, director of UNCW's Project Management Department. "At this point, we don't have any plan B. We've already analyzed plan A, B, C, D and E."
The university hopes to start construction in April and be ready for students to start moving in August 2009.
The plan calls for four privatized apartment buildings as well as a 1,000-space parking deck, which would be the first built on UNCW's campus.
A master plan for the campus approved in 2005 marked the 15 acres for development as well as another 15 acres at the site for more recreation fields or business development based on university research and work.
Shuford said another 140 acres of woods behind the buildings is slated for conservation in the master plan, and students can continue to use that area.
But those hoping to stop the project want the school to build on existing parking lot areas for student housing, moving those parking spaces to off-campus property the university already owns.
UNCW assistant plant ecology professor Steven Brewer said university administrators should be concerned about protecting the habitat that provides students with areas to perform lab work and learn about rapidly declining plant life.
"The educational value of it far exceeds the development," he said.
Brewer said the campus is home to the only patch in North Carolina of a tree known as minimal oak. The woods also contain longleaf pines, which used to cover much of the southeastern coastal plain, but now there is only 2 percent left of that original forest.
"Any ecologist can tell you that system is unique and endangered," Brewer said about the campus property, which he wants to see turned into a permanent nature preserve.
The building plan must still go through several local and state permitting processes and clear an environmental assessment, which will determine if any threatened or endangered plants or animals are affected by the construction.
A 30-day public comment period will take place once the state's part of the environmental assessment review starts.
Shuford said he does not expect problems since the woods are in the same area that was approved for the first two phases of the privatized student apartments at Seahawk Village and Seahawk Landing.
The university has made it a goal to provide on-campus housing for 40 percent of its undergraduates, or about 4,000 students, which would be met once the third apartment building opens to accommodate 660 more students.
"We're trying to provide an alternative to living off campus," Shuford said.
Vicky Eckenrode: 343-2075
vicky.eckenrode@starnewsonline.com
